Originally Posted by Worldwalker
So because you're excited, you should be able to act exactly as you want, with no regard for anyone else or what those other people do? And that's not "absurd and small"?
You're giving yourself far too much credit if you think people want to rain on your personal parade because you're just so special. You are, in fact, just some random person trying to sell a printed book on MobileRead (a no-no to begin with) and not observing the conventions followed by other posters (because you're just that awesome). Nope, not important at all. Just a mild annoyance in my quest to find something good to read.
Of course I have my own ways of expressing happiness. I do not, however, decide that the ideal way of doing so is to do annoying things to innocent people. I don't try to sell printed books in ebook forums. I don't put titles (anywhere!) in all caps because I know it's rude. I don't surprise the unsuspecting with blaring videos. I don't believe that my happiness gives me the right to do whatever I feel like. In short, I grew up in a time and with a family that believed consideration for others outweighed self-expression. And I prefer to live in a world like that, instead of the physical equivalent of Facebook, with millions of people all screaming at once but nobody listening. Most of the time, MobileRead is such a place. And I'm going to say something when it isn't.
As for publicity: "They" say a lot of things. Do you think the publicity Anne Rice got for her Amazon tirade was good publicity? Her sales crashed and burned. Laurell K. Hamilton saw similar results, though whether the sinking sales, in her case, could be attributed to her rant about how her characters were her imaginary friends (I'm not making this up!) or to the fact that her books became ... well, if you or I sent a book like her most recent to a publisher, they wouldn't tell us "try submitting to another market"; they'd say "try a different line of work." No, all publicity isn't good publicity.
In a rather distant way, this whole thing about happiness comes back to the basic premise of an open society: does respect for the ideas of others include respect for others who say such ideas are unworthy of respect? Does accepting all points of view include accepting racist, sexist, and various other -ist points of view, too? And people who say only their points of view (often one of the latter) are worthy of respect? And, in the case of the original post, does respect for the happiness of others include respecting rudeness when they choose to be happy that way? If someone, say, paints my car purple with big daisies all over it, is that okay too if they say it's because they're happy? Where do we draw the line? Which precedents, which conventions, and which rules does happiness give you license to break? And does sadness give you any special privileges, too? Can you be more annoying if you become a parent than if you just have a birthday?
A world with billions of people all shouting at once, but nobody listening, just doesn't appeal to me. And if everyone insists on their right to shout whenever they feel like, that's where we're going. It's not a nice place.
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